Refunding withholdtax on divdends for B residence permit holder

Rufio182 · January 5, 2019, 1:49pm

Hello

I am little confused on how to get back withhold tax of dividends from Swiss and foreign (e. g. US) domiciled ETFs as a residence permit B holder. I have both US and Swiss domiciled funds.

For US domiciled funds I have already sent the form W-8BEN to my broker (truewealth) to geht back half of the 30% withhold from US. Do I just need to fill from DA-1 to get back the other 15%? Or does this only apply to swiss citizens, C permit holder and B holder with >120 kCHF?

For Swiss domiciled funds: Do I just need to add gross dividend income (incl. withholdtax of 35%) in “9.4 Vermögenserträge (In- und Ausland)” in the form “Neuveranlagung der Quellensteuer” and thats it?

Would be great to get some help.

Bojack · January 5, 2019, 2:28pm

Don’t treat this as 100% truth, but back when I had under 120k income on B permit, I asked the Zurich tax office, and they said there is no way for me to reclaim the withholding tax if I am not making a tax declaration. DA-1 is a part of the tax declaration.

oozoo · January 5, 2019, 2:52pm

This is what I understood as well. You have to file a regular tax declaration

Check with your tax office

Rufio182 · January 5, 2019, 7:00pm

Thanks for replying. Did you do a tax declaration back when your income was below 120k? As i am also based in Zurich, i guess better off not doing the declaration. I would have to pay 2k more on tax when i do the declaration. what is your experience with that?

Bojack · January 5, 2019, 8:21pm

I didn’t bother. I only had like 50 CHF to reclaim, and my regular tax according to declaration would be much higher than Quellensteuer. After I crossed the 120k I had to do the declaration and it was 6k more than Quellensteuer.

Rufio182 · January 5, 2019, 8:51pm

holy sh**… So I will better not reclaim anything ;). Thanks very much for helping and making things clear.

Johnny_B · January 6, 2019, 7:24pm

Hi everybody,

as with many things, the rules differ between the cantons. This seems to be the only universal rule:
"If you earn more than 120.000 CHF per year, you have to declare taxes (“subsequent statutory assessment”). This also applies pro rata, i. e. you’ll have to declare taxes if you move to Switzerland in July and earn more than 60.000 CHF by year’s end.

While this universal rule seem to be the only one in Zurich (s. Zurich tax office), my beautiful canton of Bern has more conditions, some of them relevant for many ordinary employees. Examples:

total assets of more than 150.000 CHF
return on assets of more than 3.000 CHF
(s. the tax office’s website in Bern).

If you search the internet for subsequent statutory assessment

“nachträgliche ordentliche Veranlagung [your canton]”

you’ll certainly find the exact rules for your canton. And when in doubt, just ask your tax office. Upon my request, I received a polite, helpful and comprehensive answer within 2 days. Now that’s service focus! Not dealing with this might lead to an unpleasant surprise when you declare taxes a few years later and they discover that you should have declared your taxes much earlier.

Cheers,

J.